GREAT PURITY FIBBERY
The killing fields of Gaza have left the world a profoundly sombre place. A post-genocidal planet where melancholy sneaks up on you so unsuspectedly and retrieves an image from your terror bank deposited courtesy of Israel, the ‘most moral’ country in the world, and immediately reduces you to a folded-over sobbing heap.
For many, these visuals have etched themselves so violently in their minds that they cannot unsee them. These nightmares are another gift from the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’.
‘We are God’s Chosen’, say those who rape and plunder a land of its people and its dignity for nearly 80 years. ‘We care about the Palestinians and only want the best for them.’
For the rational and impartial onlooker, it becomes immediately apparent that the Israelis’ superlative claims and deeds are antithetical and that what they are witnessing is an extreme case of moral and spiritual dissonance.
God warns us of this disease: ‘[Prophet], have you considered those who claim purity for themselves? No! God purifies whomever He will’ [4:49].
Those who are culpable but arrogate to higher ethics are only purity fibbers. They are worse than the sanctimonious, the guiltless arrogant. For they commit four offences instead of one: 1) The crime, 2) Covering it up, 3) Edifying their actions, and 4) Claiming purity and justification in God.
Point 4 is especially wretched because lodging their falsehood as righteousness with God is treasonous. These evildoers fail to see that they are the furthest from purity: ‘Their hearts became hard, and Satan made their foul deeds alluring to them’ [6:42]. We can identify this phenomenon in the self-sanctified vitriol currently spewed by Israeli politicians and spokespeople. Just a few days ago, on 26 May 2025, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a speech, portrayed the genocide as a ‘necessary, moral, and just war.’
Those like Netanyahu, who not only avoid accountability for their actions but justify them, will always relapse into old behaviour. They will forever remain liars, contorting what they say, hear and do. But one day, their falsehood will deposit them before the judgment seat and undoubtedly leave them in the lurch.
THE MENACING BANANA
As I crisscross the myriad routes on my daily exercise adventures, I’ve come to realise that bananas might be the fruit of choice for foot traffickers.
I’m glad that is because the crescent-shaped fruit has many benefits. It’s rich in nutrients, improves blood sugar levels, supports digestive health, aids weight loss, supports heart health and more.
This discovery was not the result of a survey but of the enormous body of slippery evidence left behind on the road.
One of my occupations during my foot travels is removing harmful objects from the road, and banana peels are by far the most common hazard.
We must beware of the ripples of our actions. The menacing banana and the culture of appeal are slippery slopes. We do what appeals to us without considering the impact it will have on others.
A central tenet of the prophetic model is ummati—to set Muslims at heart and humanity by extension. A simple and effective method to implement the ummati habit is by performing small kindnesses.
The Prophet taught us: ‘Whoever removes something harmful from the road of the Muslims has a good deed written for him. Anyone whose good deed is accepted will enter the Garden’ [Albani, Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 593], and ‘When you smile in your brother’s face, or enjoin what is reputable, or forbid what is objectionable, or direct someone who has lost his way, or help a man who has bad eyesight, or removes stones, thorns and bones from the road, or pour water from your bucket into your brother’s, it counts to you as sadaqah’ [Tirmidhiy].
Both ahadith (Prophetic traditions) underscore small kindnesses as deeds to cultivate a beautiful, affable and charitable comportment: a Muslim cultivar that does not act impetuously but always considers the well-being of others. It also reflects that small virtues, if done perennially, have the power to accumulate into Divine providence and eternal felicity.
To consecrate the habit, we can pray: O God, protect me from my actions, whether big or small and their consequences. Hence, grant that I always strive for the good.
Life: it always expires.
Still, I read books by serious scholars, and it seems they haven’t yet figured out that death isn’t dependent on health. But your quality of life is.
Until next week, InshaAllah
Zaahied Sallie
Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme
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